Crass politics: NZ 'catching up' with the world – expert

New Zealand appears to be catching up with the rest of the world on crass politics, a political communication academic says — as three separate rows over crude language hit the election campaign in a single week.

The latest row came yesterday morning, when ACT candidate Paul Henry said on Radio Hauraki he would "shoot" Labour leader Chris Hipkins in a game of "shoot, shag, marry".

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is continuing to field questions about NZ First minister Shane Jones' lewd remarks about other party leaders' "kneepads" at his party's convention.

Former hopeful in the Napier electorate, Stuart Nash also quit as NZ First's candidate over a text calling National MP Katie Nimon lazy after she took parental leave. Luxon had ruled him out from becoming a government minister under his leadership.

Hipkins said Henry should have known better "with political leaders around the world actually being shot and killed", while Labour MP Ayesha Verrall went further on Newstalk ZB, calling the remark a death threat and pointing to the killings of MPs in the UK.

ACT leader David Seymour dismissed the criticism as "manufactured outrage".

"Labour know the shoot/shag/marry game is a joke, one that Radio Hauraki love to play. They know Paul doesn't have any intention of doing anything to Mr Hipkins," he said.

Luxon said he did not think "New Zealanders would take tremendous offence", and that the matter was one for Hipkins and Seymour to talk to.

Jones, meanwhile, has faced no formal consequences over his convention "kneepad" remark, and declined to weigh in on Nash.

The Prime Minister has called the kneepads line "crass and unprofessional" but has not ruled Jones out of a future Cabinet, and told reporters he had not spoken to the minister this week. Asked why Nash was treated differently, Luxon pointed to a pattern.

"You've got Stuart Nash here, who's actually got a history of some pretty derogatory language towards women," he said, adding Nash still owed Nimon a public apology.

Labour deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni said the PM was applying a double standard.

"Where are his principles? What are his standards? ... These are his Cabinet ministers. He is their boss, and he sets the standards," she said.

Political commentator Bridgette Morton said MMP pushed coalition partners to campaign as separate entities, and the PM's response to Nash drew "a really clear line in the sand".

"They each got to go after their party votes. You saw a clear differentiation between NZ First having comments out there that you know were sexist, that were degrading, that were factless," she said.

Morton said she expected more calling out of comments as election day neared – and not only from National.

"I think you're going to see all the parties making more of those calls because ultimately we are in a close election, and it is as much for the Labour Party to prove that they also have a higher standard as well."

She said polling showed NZ First did not have a strong base among women aged 25 to 45 – "the working mum sect, you might call them" – and Luxon's handling of the row would "play well with the women voters that Labour and National are both after".

Morton said NZ First was building "a record now of comments that are out of step of the standards that we expect" — also pointing to Jones' "butter chicken tsunami" line about Indian immigration and the kneepads remarks made around Indian PM Narendra Modi's visit.

Victoria University political communication professor Aeron Davis told 1News that crudeness as political language was "directly imported from the Trump playbook", and tended to surface "whenever populist parties are on the rise".

"We had a few decades of upright centre-right and centre-left parties dominating politics for a few decades, so crassness went out of fashion. But that's obviously changed since the mid-2010s – Trump, Farage, Bolsonaro, Milei and so on," he said.

"Aotearoa has just been behind the political times but seems to be catching up now."

He said NZ First's recent communications were "very deliberately playing to their base" and pitched at a similar voter group to Trump's, but the approach "obviously grates" for National with its traditional centre-ground strategy.

Morton said this week also pointed to the risks of "the celebrity candidate", singling out Henry's selection after earlier stumbles on ACT Party policy.

"Lots of fanfare and announcement, but obviously he made several missteps," she said.

Morton said parties needed to be careful in their pre-selection processes, to make sure "just the attention they attract actually is going to turn them into good MPs".

She said Henry should have seen the radio question coming, given Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese had apologised earlier this month for saying he would "shag" Kylie Minogue in a near-identical podcast game.

"That candidate maybe needs to do a little bit more media training before jumping on the radio," she told 1News yesterday.

She said Henry's answer was "clearly meant to be light-hearted", but said Nash's remarks went "to the heart of what he believes ... about women and their place in the workplace".

On Nash, Morton said he was "clearly out of step with most of New Zealand" and that his text had been "completely factless".

She said NZ First should never have selected him in the first place.

"Clearly, he should not have been selected as a candidate after his most recent comments regarding the definition of a woman and his very crude response.

"It's clearly not suitable for Parliament – clearly not suitable for Cabinet."